Page 58 - Life Happens in the Kitchen

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STAGE FOUR: HOUSEHOLD
4. Continual Dining, cont’d
Roger Beins, Clinical Mentor at Meadowlark Hills in Manhattan, KS discusses
dining in the households of Meadowlark Hills in the following scenario which earned Meadowlark the prestigious Five Star Dining Award from the Kansas Dietetic Association.
“Imagine waking up to the smell of frying bacon, freshly brewed coffee, and home- made cinnamon rolls. Does it smell like Sunday morning at Grandma’s house? The residents who live in our communities wake up to these aromas every morning. Over the past year we have made huge improvements in our overall service delivery, with the cornerstone being meal service. We recognize that food can evoke pleasant memories and can help to engender a sense of well-being for our residents and our staff as well.
“Our community has evolved from a 60-bed facility with one large dining room and another reserved for people who needed assistance with eating to six individual house- holds, each with its own living and dining room, seating between 13 and 24 residents.
“While the architectural changes are significant, the major difference in how we serve our elders is really much more than that. The main theme of our com- munity is choice and self-direction. We strive to offer the greatest range of choices for the greatest number of residents possible.
“From a meal service standpoint, this means instead of carting breakfast from a main kitchen at a set time every morning, our residents individually determine when they want to have breakfast and what they would like to eat. Then it is made to order right in their own kitchen where the smells of cook- ing fill the morning air.
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